"Linux fans hope that the interface changes in Windows 8 will drive more users to Linux. But the open source operating system is facing interface challenges of its own. Part of the problem is that - after so much controversy within the Linux community - there are so many interfaces to chose from. But the new version of Fedora - a desktop focused version of Red Hat’s distribution of Linux - is offering users an easier way to choose between the many flavors of Linux GUI."

As a self-proclaimed power user, I don't think it matters how many GUIs you have to choose from, especially if they're not all compatible with each other.

What matters more to me personally is how well apps run across all of them. For example, I don't like the idea of certain apps running/integrating better in some desktop environments and not others.

If people really want Linux to gain any kind of traction on the desktop, that shit better be tight and run flawlessly, no matter what DE I'm running. For example, if I'm running a KDE/QT based app and copy an image to the clipboard, will I then be able to paste it into a Gnome/GTK-based app, under any desktop environment I have to choose from?

Note that this question isn't rhetorical... I have no idea if this would work or not. But if the answer is that it wouldn't work, and these desktop environments/frameworks are just 'islands' that are completely separate from each other, then Linux on the desktop will be as irrelevant 20 years from now as it is today, until/unless this changes.

As a self-proclaimed power user, I don't think it matters how many GUIs you have to choose from, especially if they're not all compatible with each other.

What matters more to me personally is how well apps run across all of them. For example, I don't like the idea of certain apps running/integrating better in some desktop environments and not others.

If people really want Linux to gain any kind of traction on the desktop, that shit better be tight and run flawlessly, no matter what DE I'm running. For example, if I'm running a KDE/QT based app and copy an image to the clipboard, will I then be able to paste it into a Gnome/GTK-based app, under any desktop environment I have to choose from?

Note that this question isn't rhetorical... I have no idea if this would work or not. But if the answer is that it wouldn't work, and these desktop environments/frameworks are just 'islands' that are completely separate from each other, then Linux on the desktop will be as irrelevant 20 years from now as it is today, until/unless this changes.

Agreed. Things like the XDG Desktop Entry Specification (.desktop files), MPRIS, and managing to get KDE 4 and GNOME to agree on D-Bus really epitomize the progress Linux desktops have made toward greatness.

The problem is, every now and then, I hear rumblings from one (or more) guy(s) in the GNOME project who seem to think "you're either a GNOME app or you're not" is a winning stance to take to build a popular brand, rather than a sure-fire path to killing Linux's secret sauce.

It's actually the main reason I try to minimize my use of GNOME and KDE apps in my LXDE desktop (performance aside).

They often use theming tweaks or animations or custom widgetry or behavioural tweaks that only feel native in their home desktop, even after you've done your best to make them fit in... or they're just so poorly tested outside their home desktops that they have deal-breaking bugs.

The problem is, every now and then, I hear rumblings from one (or more) guy(s) in the GNOME project who seem to think "you're either a GNOME app or you're not" is a winning stance to take to build a popular brand

That might actually work, but not for Linux as a whole. If they're going to go that route, they should build an entire OS around it (even if it's Linux as the foundation), so that that tight integration exist through the entire operating system, not just the desktop environment. Something like a 'Gnome OS', I guess.

Note that this question isn't rhetorical... I have no idea if this would work or not. But if the answer is that it wouldn't work, and these desktop environments/frameworks are just 'islands' that are completely separate from each other, then Linux on the desktop will be as irrelevant 20 years from now as it is today, until/unless this changes.

Copy/paste, between applications using different toolkits, has been working for at least twenty years. I know GTK and Qt barely existed twenty years ago, but the clipboard protocol predate them.